The daughter's girls are here for the weekend, so I woke them up for pancakes this morning. They've pretty much vegged out in front of the computers all day. I've spent my day keeping an eye on Bonnie-the-cow, who exhibits signs of stage one of labor; but then, she's been doing that for three days. We opened up the back door of Blue's old stall so she can have some shade whenever she needs it, and she's been spending a lot of time in there. This morning I told Cliff, "I'd hate to see her have a calf on that filthy stall floor." Cliff stopped his weed-eating to say, "Get the wheel barrow and haul some straw out there to put in the floor; that'll freshen it up." Thanks a lot, Cliff. I did it, though, and Bonnie was so grateful, she laid right down in the first load I spread in the corner of the stall. I spent some time sitting with her in the stall, eating cantaloupe. She was curious and kept on bugging me until I gave her a bite. Big mistake, because then she wouldn't get her snotty nose out of my dish.
Then I talked Cliff, bless his heart, into fixing her up with a fan. She loves it, as you can see, and stands in front of it to cool off. She thinks she's the Queen of Sheba.
Cliff spent the better part of the day mowing and weed-eating, but he found some time to work on his latest tractor purchase, the Oliver 550. I have no idea what he's doing in this picture. I do know one thing he fixed, though.
When we bought the 550, it had to be started with a wire contraption. Cliff figured out the problem with little effort this evening, and now it starts with a key! This brief video would have been better taken outside, but this is what you get. Most of the parts on the Super 55 interchange with the 550, and Cliff is going to take axles and other parts from that tractor and put them on this one, his pet. Once he's taken the best from the Super 55 and traded for the more-worn parts on the 550, he'll sell the older tractor. It's mechanically sound, and he'll enjoy getting it in good shape before he sells it. I'm fairly certain he will make a few bucks on it. Good Lord willing, the 550 will stay with us for awhile.
I was already impressed at the individual attention I was given after complaining to Kansas City Power and Light about constant power outages here that only affected three homes. Then yesterday, two service guys came in trucks and spent at least an hour checking out our lines. In this day and age, follow-up service from such a huge company? Then storms began brewing yesterday evening; lights dimmed repeatedly and finally flickered and died. How could this be, after all the attention they'd given? Cliff's next-door sister called, and I invited her to come on over and spend time in the dark with me and my daughter's two girls. I called in a report of the power outage and gave Rena some Russian salsa and chips. At some point it hit me that perhaps this outage was different, that it might be affecting a bigger area. A check of the neighborhood showed me that indeed, this time it wasn't only three houses. Dusk-to-dawn lights that show up from my front door were not sending out their beacons of light. We got our electricity back after perhaps an hour; when I went to Facebook I saw that my whole little town had experienced this outage, and I felt much better; misery loves company, you know. And this gives me hope that perhaps our little teeny problem has been dealt with after all.
And now on to my phone company, Century-Link (Joey, are you reading?). Cliff and I could save a little money if we did away with our land line. We'd like to get rid of it and yet keep our DSL service; I called Century-Link and found it's possible to do this. For some reason, though, after a year's time, it would actually cost us MORE without the phone that it does now with it. I don't know why "after a year", but that's how I understand it. The line is already in place. More and more people are getting rid of their home phones. Seems to me we ought to be able to save that $35 monthly bill. OK, make it $30, since we'd probably lose the $5 we're allowed for bundling phone, Internet, and Dish. Still, with Cliff thinking seriously of retiring next year, that buck a day could make a difference.
